This New Zealand Life

Kiwi electrical sockets lack safety features

GIVEN that New Zealand electricity is supplied at 240 volts, just as in the UK, you'd think it would be an inexpensive matter to get all your newly shipped appliances and electrical goods working when you arrive. It is, but only if you think ahead.

Ordinary living allows us to ignore those essential items that smooth the rough edges of daily routine and make our lives a little more pleasurable.

Yet when packing to emigrate, or for long term stays, it's easy to think those small packages of joy will not be needed, or even useless.

Top things Brits miss when abroad

SURPRISING top spot in the list of things Brits miss when abroad is a good bed. And at Christmas, with no many of us in NZ as residents or visiting family, it’s not just the Queen’s speech and crisp winter mornings we find lacking...

When Jellyfish Attack

 

EACH YEAR, at about Christmas, the cold waters swirling round the bottom of the North Island are momentarily mixed up with warmer currents. Children swim, parents paddle, but beneath the shimmering foam danger lurks. Nigel Charman tells you what to do when jelly turns your day to custard.

 

A land without Zombies

NEW ZEALAND has come away with an honorable mention as one of the top places to live when the Zombie apocolypse strikes. Its small population combined with vast tracts of uninhabited land make it ideal for hunkering down while the cities of the rest of the world are overrun by mushy brains.

Why should you leave the UK for NZ?

You gather round the log burner, pull on another Skivvy and tuck up under a blanket

PEOPLE leave the UK for a better lifestyle elsewhere. They imagine the petty rules, regulations and obligations will be left far behind in a green-less memory, and that any choices they make in the new country will be easy, successful and illuminated by sunshine.

But of course it's not like that. For a start there are plenty of people who find it difficult to navigate the sometimes obtuse immigration requirements, and there are other expats who find daily costs more expensive than they'd budgeted for. Moving money between the UK and New Zealand can be expensive, particularly at the moment.

Recent News

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US home invasion: 'Our personal holocaust'
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Building a dream New Zealand lifestyle

JULIE Treanor and her husband Martin arrived in New Zealand three and a half years ago leaving behind family, friends and the opportunities a heavily populated country like the UK can provide.

"I miss what a bigger market offers in terms of choice and value, as I find NZ limited and the quality sometimes really poor," says Julie.

But, "I came to get away from a life driven by material things," she adds.

Living with Wellington's fearful secret

Wellington CBD from Mount Victoria. Photograph: wikicommons

THE capital of New Zealand straddles a violent crack in the earth's crust that is overdue for a seismic shift. Hundreds of buildings in Wellington's central business district could be destroyed, and thousands may die. So how do residents live with the risks?

The accidental migrant

I remember sitting outside a Napier cafe on a lovely sunny day and saying to myself 'I could live here without too much difficulty'

While many Brits make a determined decision to emigrate to New Zealand, some live happily in the Land of the Ring by happen stance. So what string of accidents can make a curious arrival stay for the long term?

Is violence reason to leave Britain?

UK violent attacks reach two a minute

THIS New Zealand Life likes to point out the good and the bad for expats and immigrants in NZ.

Sometimes this might seem gushingly over enthusiastic and at other times readers might wonder why you'd ever want to live on such a remote, unstable collection of rocks. It is all a balance, of course.

But it's useful to be reminded of why so many Brits end up leaving the jolly old UK and heading for a different life overseas.